In the world of VC, harassment claims aren’t necessarily a deal killerA storm fueled by greater awareness about sexual assault and harassment has been gaining momentum in the U.S. ever since a former Uber engineer named Susan Fowler hit “publish” on a post about her jarring experience inside the high-flying rideshare company. So many men have been swept up — and out — of their respective businesses for behaving badly that Time magazine pronounced the powerful social campaign #metoo and the women behind it as “Person of the Year.” Silicon Valley has hardly been immune. In the world of venture capital, two of the highest-profile poster boys for this uprising (as of this writing) are venture capitalists Steve Jurvetson, formerly of the venture firm DFJ, and Shervin Pishevar, who co-founded the firm Sherpa Capital and has, in recent days, taken a leave of absence from the outfit. While seemingly devastating body blows for their respective firms, institutional investors with whom we’ve spoken and who asked not to be named in this story say they remain interested in superstars like Jurvetson if they’re able to repair their reputations. If not, they say, plenty of family offices will rush to fill the void. [ TechCrunch ] Andy Rubin has returned to his company weeks after he took leave amid allegations of inappropriate behaviorAndy Rubin, the founder of smartphone startup Essential, has already returned to his company less than two weeks after it was announced that he took a leave of absence amid questions about an alleged inappropriate relationship. Rubin as of Friday ended the personal leave that he took in November after dealing with personal issues, according to two people familiar with his activities. His leave was reportedly only shared with employees on November 27, though a company representative said at the time that he began his leave earlier that month. The CEO of Essential last month took leave as The Information was about to report that an “internal investigation determined that he had carried on an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate,” when he served as a top executive at Google. [ Re/Code ] Why Is Silicon Valley So Slow to Expel Abusive Men?Men at the top are falling, from Bill O’Reilly to Matt Lauer to Harvey Weinstein to Rep. John Conyers. We can count among them Travis Kalanick, the former CEO of Uber, who once nicknamed the ride-hailing company “Boober” because of the attention from women his position apparently attracted. Just as in Hollywood and the media, men in the technology industry who either presided over inappropriate workplace cultures or who themselves have been accused of sexual misconduct are being called to account. Yet while the media and entertainment industries are producing a flood of remarkable stories about sexual assault, rape, and harassment, the fallout in the tech industry has been markedly slower. Yes, some prominent executives have stepped down for inappropriate behavior, like Dave McClure of 500 Startupsand Robert Scoble, the famed Microsoft blogger. Both were accused by women of sexual misconduct or making unwanted advances. But you have to wonder why at the most powerful and monied companies in the world, where men overwhelmingly dominate technical and executive roles and where sexism has long been recognized as an industrywide problem, so few stories have surfaced. [ Slate ] E783: Finless Foods clean fish biotech to address scarcity of healthy, affordable seafoodFull transcript: LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock partner Reid Hoffman on Recode DecodeOn this bonus episode of Recode Decode, hosted by Kara Swisher, Kara interviewed Reid Hoffman onstage for the Never Is Now event in San Francisco. The two discussed, among other things, how social media biggies like Facebook, Twitter and Reddit could improve their platforms and whether augmented reality can trigger empathy. You can read some of the highlights here, or listen to the entire interview in the audio player below. We’ve also provided a lightly edited complete transcript of their conversation. [ Recode ] Ottawa holds up venture capital deal to highlight benefits of Beijing tiesThe dignitaries at the signing ceremony in Beijing's St. Regis Hotel on Friday paid homage to Xi Jinping and repeatedly name-checked the Chinese president's favoured project. This is not how venture capital funds are brought to life in other places. But it was how a small group of Canadian money managers agreed to join forces with a government-backed Chinese firm, in a unique partnership that Ottawa has showcased as an example of what can be accomplished as it seeks to lead the global environmental agenda in step with Beijing. "You have complete alignment between the Canadian government and the Chinese government, Canadian companies and Chinese companies," said Environment Minister Catherine McKenna, who is in the midst of a lengthy China trip to further cement Ottawa's ties with Beijing. [ The Globe and Mail ] Coinbase CEO: ‘Please invest responsibly’In a Medium post, the CEO of Coinbase, one of the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges out there, is urging users to be responsible about their investments. “We also wanted to remind customers of some of the risks associated with trading digital currency,” CEO Brian Armstrong wrote. “Digital currencies are volatile and the prices can go up and down.” The startup, which is currently valued at $1.6 billion — though undoubtedly soon to be worth a whole lot more if current trends continue — had a rough day yesterday as the exchange buckled under the pressure of a particularly hefty day of trading. For large swaths of time, the app was unavailable for many users who were unable to even check their account balance. This came as the Coinbase app skyrocketed to temporarily holding the No. 1 downloaded free app spot in the App Store. [ TechCrunch ] After the Drought: The Rebirth of European Venture CapitalIn China’s Vehicle Market, There’s No Need To Add Fuel To The FireEver-larger sums are pouring into electric and autonomous vehicles startups headquartered in China. Over just a few years, investment into the space increased from thousands, to millions, to billions of dollars. The recipients of this funding frenzy, at least in terms of dollars, are startups looking to build their own fleet of electric and autonomous vehicles. Following car ambitious car manufacturers are startups that provide software and hardware for EV and autonomous vehicles. And in a couple cases, there are even startups in the region that would prefer to ditch the standard vehicular model altogether. [ CrunchBase ] Tech IPO Report 2018Lyft adds to IPO speculation with newest hire |